112 HYMEXOPTERA. 



By changing the field of operations each succeeding year, 

 some hitherto rare or perhaps doubtful species occurs in 

 abundance; we would, however, call particular attention to 

 a capture made during the past season, on ground over which 

 we have collected during the last two-and-twenty years. 

 Shuckard, in his admirable Essay on the Foswrial Hymen- 

 optera, says, in the remarks on Pompilus notatus, " I am 

 unacquainted with the female of this insect, I took a single 

 specimen in 1833 at Highgate ; Mr. Stephens's, I believe, 

 was captured at Ripley in Surrey." Since the year 1836 

 we have searched annually for that insect without success, 

 but during the past season, at a spot which had been fre- 

 quently searched before, we found the long looked for 

 P. notatus, and captured seven males and one female ; 

 therefore let not those, whose occupations will not admit 

 of their extending their researches beyond a limited district, 

 despair of adding novelties to their collections, let them not 

 imagine that in a few seasons thev have exhausted anv lo- 

 cality. In addition to the above another rarity, Pompilus 

 variegatus, was captured within half-a-mile of the spot 

 where the above novelty occurred ; the latter we had not 

 met with since the far-famed Colney Hatch "Wood was de- 

 stroyed, and an asylum for lunatics erected in its stead. 



About twenty years ago we noticed, in the collection 

 of the late J. F. Stephens, a very beautiful Ichneumon, 

 Arotes cdbicinctus, taken on the trunk of an oak at the 

 entrance to Darenth Wood; on obtaining the knowledge of 

 the locality, we proceeded a few days afterwards to Darenth; 

 no sooner had we arrived at the spot pointed out, than on 

 the identical oak a fine Arotes settled before us, and was 

 immediately captured ; the following season a second example 

 was taken at Colney Hatch, since which we have not met 



